This is a beautiful Moroccan-style boutique hotel on the quiet, picturesque east coast of Zanzibar. It consists of five recently built villas with ten private suites. We stayed in Palm Villa 2. All of the villas and the hotel itself have been tastefully decorated with some excellent paintings and furniture to match the Moroccan architecture. It is right next to the beach, where there is a reef, a lagoon and tidal flats which provide a stunning view.
The service was excellent – it was the end of the season and we were the only guests, so we were able to spend a week being thoroughly pampered by the attentive and charming staff. Nothing was too much trouble, as long as we were content and enjoying our stay. The manager was hospitality personified, as was his assistant.
Our room was on the first floor, with a large balcony overlooking the sea, and was spacious and well-appointed: a comfortable bed, easy chairs, an excellent en-suite bathroom with a powerful shower – perfect for relaxing and enjoying a high standard of comfort. We also had access to a higher terrace which provided a welcome breeze from the sea, and a wonderful panoramic view of the coral reef below.
The local village has some restaurants along the sandy beach, but the cultural interest, market, shopping and (presumably) nightlife is in Zanzibar town, a 50-minute car journey on a good road. We chose Kikadini Villas for its seclusion, its elegance (see the website) and its tranquillity – after a week's strenuous safari in northern Tanzania, it turned out to be just what we had been hoping to find. A (new) swimming pool gave us great pleasure, and unless the tide was right in we could walk a long way in either direction on the white coral beach.
What did we find least satisfactory? Zanzibar’s electricity supply when we were there was unreliable. As with many hotels at that time, our hotel had to rely on its own generator, which to preserve its life was kept on for about half the time, so that the shower was not always available when we wanted it and the fan switched off at midnight, leaving us on most nights to be cooled by the breeze. Given the problems with electricity supplies, the food was of reasonable quality although the the choice of wine was very good! The promise of a more powerful generator and two international chefs for next season will mean that Kikiadini will provide exactly the right unhurried, tranquil ambience and high standard of service and comfort that would rate five stars by our reckoning.
- Manage your listing
